Georgia’s Patriarch turns 85

12:39, 04.01.2018

Catholicos Patriarch of Georgia, His Holiness and Beatitude Ilia II has turned 85 today.

No celebration activities of the Patriarch’s birthday is planned at the Georgian Patriarchate today.

Ilia II was born as Irakli Ghudushauri-Shiolashvili in Vladikavkaz, Russia’s North Ossetia January 4, 1933 . He graduated from the Moscow clerical seminary and was ordained a hierodeacon in 1957 and hieromonk in 1959; he graduated from the Moscow clerical academy in 1960 and returned to Georgia, where he was assigned to the Batumi Cathedral Church as a priest. In 1961, he was promoted tohegumen and later to archimandrite. On August 26, 1963, he was chosen to be the bishop of Batumi and Shemokmedi and appointed a patriarchal vicar. From 1963 to 1972 he was also the first rector of the Mtskheta Theological Seminary – the only clerical school in Georgia at that time.In 1967, he was consecrated as the bishop of Tskhumi and Abkhazeti and elevated to the rank of metropolitan in 1969. After the death of the controversial Patriarch David V, he was elected the new Catholicos-Patriarch of Georgia on December 25, 1977.

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Ilia II